Saint Pachomius of Tabenna
- Also known as
- Pachomius the Elder
- Memorial
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14 May (in the west)
15 May (in the east)
9 May (Coptic church)
- Profile
- Soldier in the imperial Roman army.
Convert in 313.
Left the army in 314.
Spiritual student of Saint Palaemon.
Hermit from 316.
During a retreat into the deep desert, he received a vision telling him to build a monastery on the spot and leave the life of a hermit for that of a monk.
He did in 320, and devised a Rule that let fellow hermits ease from solitary to communal living.
Abbot.
His first house expanded to eleven monasteries and convents with over 7,000 monks and nuns in religous life by the time of Pachomius's death.
Spiritual teacher of Saint Abraham the Poor.
Considered the founder of Christian cenobitic (communal) monasticism, whose rule for monks is the earliest extant.
- Born
- c.290 at Upper Thebaid, Egypt
- Died
- c.346 of natural causes
- Additional Information
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New Catholic Dictionary
Catholic Encyclopedia
Encyclopedia Britannica
Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Saints, by Matthew Bunson, Margaret Bunson, and Stephen Bunson
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